Tom Clifford ’16 went to fight without hope of victory

On Easter Saturday 1916, Tom Clifford sat down in his room in 4 Gardiner St to write a letter to his brother Dan. The letter has recently been discovered by their niece, Carmel Clifford.

“Dear Dan, I’m just going to confession and communion now. How is it that neither of us has written to the other this long time? Well, at any rate, I have to start now or perhaps you may never hear from me. Times are more than troublesome here.”

Tom was a member of G Company 2nd Dublin Batallion of the Irish Volunteers. One of his officers in G Company was Dick McKee, who would later be tortured to death in Dublin Castle on Bloody Sunday 1921.